Unhappy ‘Gays’ Assault Ex-gays at County Fair in Virginia

A news release from Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays:

Arlington, VA (Aug. 28, 2007) — Last week Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) exhibited at the Arlington County Fair in Arlington, Virginia.  PFOX has exhibited at this county fair for the past four years and hands out materials on same-sex attraction and tolerance for the ex-gay community to a hungry public.  A local gay group also exhibits there and distributes materials on gay rights.

As happens every year, gay activists disrupted our booth activities.  They screamed obscenities, threw our materials from the exhibit table to the ground, insisted we recognize their same-sex “spouses,” demanded that PFOX leave, and hit a PFOX volunteer because he is ex-gay.

When we explained that the county’s sexual orientation law allows both the gay booth and our ex-gay booth to exhibit, the unhappy gays insisted that sexual orientation laws on hate crimes and discrimination do not apply to ex-gays — only gays — and no tolerance should be extended to former homosexuals. 

All the gays who stopped by our booth that week insisted that no one could change their sexual orientation from gay to straight, although they knew of people who had changed in mid-life from heterosexual to a gay lifestyle or had changed their gender. 

The gays became infuriated when our ex-gay volunteers testified about leaving homosexuality.  They adamantly refused to accept the ex-gays’ sexual orientation.  One gay man went so far as to hit our ex-gay volunteer because he refused to recant his ex-gay testimony.  We summoned a police officer, who ejected the gay man off of the fairgrounds.  Our ex-gay volunteer decided not to press assault charges against the gay man because he wanted to turn the other check as Jesus had done. 

This is not the first year that PFOX has had to summon the police for protection from gay activists.  Although the gays have their own exhibit booth, they steadfastly refuse to accept the presence of an ex-gay booth or support equal access.  Also disturbing is that several of the gays identified themselves as educators who would ensure that our teen materials do not reach schoolchildren as gay materials do. 

From years of exhibiting at public events across the country, PFOX has learned:

Leaving homosexuality is like leaving a cult – many gay activists feel betrayed by ex-gays and hate anyone who supports self-determination when it comes to the ex-gay community.  Although God gave us free will to choose our own lives, whether good or bad choices, gay activists would take free will away from us and force ex-gays back into the closet.

Gay activists fear factual information that PFOX makes available to teens.  Gay activists have had a monopoly over our youth for so long that they resent any competing information and label anything contrary to their pro-gay ideology as “dangerous” to youth. 

Gay activists do not support hate crimes or sexual orientation anti-discrimination laws if those laws include ex-gays.  “Hate crimes” is another word for hate against ex-gays while protecting gays.  Therefore, we must work to ensure that all sexual orientation laws at any level specifically include former homosexuals or be eliminated altogether as discriminatory.

PFOX is the only organization distributing ex-gay educational literature to the public, including public schools.  We are the only ex-gay organization almost everywhere we go.  Almost every day we are on the front lines suffering harassment and injustices merely because we demand our equal rights. 

The public eats up our information because they have never been exposed to factual truth about same-sex attractions.  Teens especially are eager for our educational literature.  But our brochures and flyers cost money to print.  We also have to pay for exhibit fees and travel.  If you would like to help with costs, please make a tax deductible donation to:

Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays
PFOX
Box 561, Fort Belvoir VA 22060
703-360-2225

Or donate online by Paypal at http://www.pfox.org/donate.htm

Remember – no one does it but PFOX!!!